As do the inventions in the above-identified related applications, the present invention concerns network interface enclosures for connecting incoming telephone lines to subscriber-owned telephone wiring located on the subscriber's premises.
Deregulation of the telephone industry has necessitated a clearly defined demarcation point between the incoming telephone lines and the subscriber-owned wiring located on te subscriber's premises. One reason for this is that it is important to be able to quickly and efficiently determine whether problems in telephone wiring exist in the telephone company owned portion of the wiring or in the subscriber's house wiring, since defects or faults in the subscriber's house wiring generally are the responsibility of the subscriber and not the telephone company. Accordingly, it is convenient to provide an interface device which allows for interconnection of the telephone company owned wiring and the subscriber premises wiring and which also allows the subscriber or telephone company personnel to make a determination whether a fault exists in the subscriber wiring or in the telephone company owned wiring when a problem arises. Furthermore, the interface device provides a convenient location for disposition of telephone line testing equipment, such as maintenance termination units (MTU's), protective equipment such as lightning arresters or other specialized electronics (e.g., party line electronics).
Various arrangements for solving this problem have been proposed and a number of competitive devices for achieving this end have been developed. For example, see U.S. application Ser. No. Des. 518,410, now U.S. Pat. No. Des. D-282,654, commonly owned by the assignee of the present application. Also see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,488,008 and 4,500,158 for other examples.